I have spent time thinking about mum’s retirement quilt and I think it should be scrappy. She’s a seamstress herself and taught me how to sew some 30 years ago. I still sew on the old machine she got as a newlywed in the early 80s.
What she isn’t (without wanting to insult her) is a person with style. Whether it’s clothes or interior decorating or whatever, I’ve yet to discover strong personal preferences. She’s always perfectly dressed because she shops at great stores where they put together the outfits for her. She takes other people furniture shopping and buys what they tell her to. She likes whatever the latest trend is, and after a while when it’s not on trend anymore she hates it (but she’s frugal, so if it’s furniture she’s going to keep it and hate it forever). It’s a shame she feels so strongly about no-longer-trendy styles. At some point in the 1980s she looked like she was in Dynasty and she can’t even think “that was a pretty cool look back then”, she feels so bad that she looked so ugly by today’s standards. That’s why I have only ever crafted small things for her. She can get rid of it when she’s done with that style.
Her current thing is beige and grey. Not my thing but if I knew she would still love it in a few years, I’d make a huge neutral quilt. But I don’t. And even for my own mother’s retirement, I feel like a quilt is too big of a commitment if it’s going to end up in a box in the attic in two years because she now hates it.
So instead, I’m thinking of scrappy (co-ordinated scrappy, not random scrappy) and I think I’m going to dig through her scrap bin when I’m there. I already have some of her scraps and I inherited grandma’s scraps. By the way - I have full permission to take anything from her stash that I want because she says I’m going to inherit it anyway. This way, it will be more of a sentimental project than part of her decor and it will hopefully match future styles in her home. I think she’ll continue to like it that way.
In the past she never really “got” quilting but we were at a craft fair a few months back and I could barely peel her away from the displayed quilts. So I’m sure she’d appreciate a quilt.
I appreciate all your words of encouragement about my Star Spangled Beauty quilt. Pulling the plug was definitely the right call and made for a more relaxed weekend for all of us. We went to the zoo (for a soft pretzel - LittleBookLover has a button on the zoo page of his communication device that says, “My favorite zoo snack is a soft pretzel,” and he’s been pushing it a lot lately, so on Saturday, he got his soft pretzel ), came home and watched the fireworks, then went to the fair on Sunday (where Av had another soft pretzel - yum!). It was a busy weekend and I’m glad I didn’t stay up late on Friday to work on the quilt.
@Immaculata, I’m looking forward to seeing your surprise quilt! I think that was a smart choice to just cut that quarter inch off and make life easier on yourself. That’s annoying that you were on track to finish it when you discovered the earlier mistake, but at the same time thank goodness you noticed it in time to fix it!
After reading about your mom’s retirement quilt, I really love your idea of making it scrappy - especially incorporating scraps from both her stash and your grandma’s. That’ll make the quilt even more meaningful and since it isn’t tied to any particular decorating trend or style, it sounds like it’ll be the kind of quilt that will be treasured and appreciated for many years to come.
@AIMR, I hope you have a good time visiting with your sister! Nice job completing the April BOM!
Here is the updated the Quiltalong Tracking Sheet for this quarter. You should be able to just click it and print it. Please let me know if there are any issues.
I like this quarters prompts. I can see they will help me get a lot of quilting done.
Q3 goals.
Finish another wanderers wife panel.
Do at least two sections of the balloon dog quilt.
Fix, or get fixed, Lucie the long armer.
Quilt one quilt on Lucie
Make an appliqued block
Make a pieced long coat
Do a quick top to use up some scraps
Do a quick top to use up 2.5" strips
), came home and watched the fireworks, then went to the fair on Sunday (where Av had another soft pretzel - yum!). It was a busy weekend and I’m glad I didn’t stay up late on Friday to work on the quilt.
